Pope sorry for Kenyans burdened by corrupt leaders

December 1, 2015 2:12 pm

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By OLIVE BURROWS, Pope Francis said he was sympathetic to the plight of those forced to live in slums and for the youth whose future aspirations were threatened by those who worshiped money and placed little value on human life/MICHAEL MUMOABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE, Dec 1 – On his way back to the Vatican at the end of his five day tour of Africa, Pope Francis told Kenyan journalists that his heart went out to their countrymen who were burdened by corrupt leaders.

Pope Francis said he was sympathetic to the plight of those forced to live in slums and for the youth whose future aspirations were threatened by those who worshiped money and placed little value on human life.

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“I met the poor in Kangemi and the youth in Kenya. I felt pain and sorrow and I thought about how people don’t realise what is happening. The uneconomic system is at the centre of everything,” he said.

Pope Francis said this, “idolatry of money,” had led to an unstable socio-economic model in many countries the world over and needed urgent re-organisation.

“I know this problem. I have spoken three times strongly about, in Bolivia and other two places I have visited. I don’t remember the statistics very well but the ones I’ve heard of show that 80 percent of the world’s riches are in the hands of 17 percent of the population.”

During his visit to Kenya, Pope Francis didn’t ignore the elephant in the room – corruption – and with President Uhuru Kenyatta having set the tone, took it head on in several meetings.

When he received Pope Francis at State House, President Kenyatta asked the Pope to pray for him as he tackled the vice.

In two speeches thereafter, addressing slum families in Kangemi and youth at the Kasarani stadium, Pope Francis shamed, “faceless private developers,” who went as far as grabbing school land, water cartels, exploitative landlords in the slums and public officials who extorted bribes.

“When we take a bribe and we put it in our pocket we destroy our hearts, our personality and our country. Corruption is not a path to life, it’s a path to death,” the Pope cautioned.

OLIVE BURROWS With a decade of storytelling under her belt, Olive Burrows has been with Capital FM for the last four years and perhaps most notably interviewed US President Barack Obama. Committed to asking the hard questions and telling the story in the most engaging way possible, she has also interviewed Melinda Gates, a UK Minister and severally had the opportunity to sit across from President Uhuru Kenyatta and address the pressing issues of the day. Other notables she has had occasion to seek answers from are UN Secretary General António Guterres and John Kerry in his time as US Secretary of State.